Rural Roots and Routes:
Navigating Complexities of Quality of Life, Immobility, and Migration
18 – 20 June 2025 | Halle (Saale), Germany

Rural regions around the world are increasingly affected by out-migration. People leave their homes for various reasons, such as in search of better economic opportunities or to escape conflict. Additionally, climate change is becoming an increasingly important factor in influencing migration patterns by affecting agricultural and living conditions. Population decline hampers regional development by reducing the capacity for innovation and growth. As social capital erodes and public infrastructure degrades, the quality of life for remaining residents declines, often driving further out-migration.

The IAMO Forum 2025 provides a platform for researchers to explore these complex interactions. In times of political conflicts, climate and biodiversity crises, increasing resource demand, and demographic change, rural development is under threat. A deeper understanding of the factors that influence the patterns of migration, immobility, and quality of life is needed to foster sustainable growth and improve the quality of life for affected communities. The interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary IAMO Forum 2025 provides a unique platform for the exchange of novel insights, rigorous research, and practical solutions that address the complex relationships between quality of life, migration, and immobility.

The Forum welcomes contributions on the following topics:

• Quality of life and well-being in rural areas
• The role of place attachment and other factors in decisions on migration and immobility
• Migration in times of climate change and other crises: motives, drivers, and implications
• The role of politics in (im)mobility decisions
• Innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding quality of life, migration, and immobility in rural areas

We welcome qualitative and quantitative research as well as theoretical work from agricultural and resource economics, development economics, sociology, geography, and related disciplines. We particularly encourage submissions with a geographical focus on Europe, Central Asia, and China.

The conference language is English.

The conference is organized as part of the Leibniz Best Minds Project RuWell and co-organized by the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB).